A man with Alzheimer’s, knowing there’s no cure for the disease, donned a million-dollar helmet for a cutting-edge treatment directing nearly a thousand beams of ultrasound energy at a target in his brain the size of a pencil point.

Dan Miller, 61, said he didn’t have anything to lose when he signed up for the experimental procedure, pioneered by Dr. Ali Rezai, a neurosurgeon. Doctors have used ultrasound for 70 years to get better views of organ and fetal development. Rezai is testing it now as a treatment tool for people with Alzheimer’s and those battling drug addiction.

“There’s no miracle cures here,” Rezai said. “It’s advancing medicine with calculated risks and pushing the frontiers.”

Miller was one of three patients in Rezai’s trial at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in Morgantown, West Virginia. Rezai allowed 60 Minutes to witness his revolutionary attempt to use ultrasound to slow down the cognitive decline of people with Alzheimer’s disease.